The Minnesota State Legislature will elect four new University of Minnesota Board of Regents this spring to fill the four open seats — one student at-large, two statewide at-large and one fifth district seat.

The Regent Candidate Advisory Committee interviewed 22 candidates for all four open Board seats and released their recommendations for 12 candidates in January.

Benjie Kaplan and Kowsar Mohammed are running for the fifth district seat. Ann Sheldon, Dan Wolters and John Gibbs are running for the two at-large seats. The Minnesota Daily was unable to get in touch with Jamal Adams or Ellen Luger, both running for the At-Large seats, prior to publication.

Meet Benjie

Benjie Kaplan, a fifth district candidate, was executive director of the University Hillel Center for 10 years. He is currently the campus support director for Hillel International, serving Hillel centers across the country.

Kaplan said his work at the Hillel center is similar to the board, just on a far smaller scale.

Hillel serves anywhere from 600 to 800 Jewish students through programming and partnerships, Kaplan said.

Kaplan said his work at Hillel is important in helping him plan out what he would do on the Board.

“Throughout my work with Hillel, one of our go-tos is starting with one-on-one relationships with people and you branch out from there,” Kaplan said. “Building a relationship with the campus community is important because when things pop up on campus, you need to have a relationship to be able to have a good dialogue.”

Kaplan wants to focus on student success in the classroom. He said that there needs to be a bigger focus on student support.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure in the world for everyone under the sun to take sides on many different topics,” Kaplan said. “I think by being out there and hearing, listening and building relations, the Board of Regents can try to do what’s best for all students.”

Meet Kowsar

Kowsar Mohamed, another fifth district candidate, grew up in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis and earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University. She is currently a doctoral student studying natural resources science and management.

Mohamed has worked in community development, working for the city of St. Paul as a project manager.

“I’ve worked in the public sector,” Mohamed said. “I’ve done community organizing and activism, and I know how to get to the root issues of problems, but I’m also not scared of talking to people.”

Her biggest priority is building trust between the Board and the University community, as she wants the board to focus on being stewards of the public and using the budget to benefit students.

Mohamed said she wants to focus on sustained communication.

“You can’t really ever over-communicate, right?” Mohamed said. “I think we can always be in the space of under-communicating. So for me, it looks like really being boots on the ground in those communities where there may be significant challenges around how they are interfacing with their ecosystems.”

A big priority for Mohamed is sustained and preserved mental health and wellbeing resources. She also wants the University to work with local public entities, like city governments and the municipalities that surround the five schools.

“My biggest thing is we don’t have to recreate the wheel,” Mohamed said. “We’re a really large system. We have more than enough resources in the wherewithal to connect more deeply with one another and stack up our resources in a way that’s sustainable.”

Meet Ann

Ann Sheldon, an at-large seat candidate, graduated from the University in 1988 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Sheldon worked for Medtronic in Minnesota since and worked for the Alumni Association as a board member for eight years and was the chair in 2022-23.

Sheldon served on the search committee for the University’s current president and attended various campus forums to hear from students.

“There’s an equation that students talk about,” Sheldon said. “It’s not just the coursework, it’s the experience. Do I feel welcome on campus? Do I have help when I need help? Is this an affordable education?”

Sheldon is focused on student success and the teaching hospital.

“The University of Minnesota educates 70% of the physicians in the state,” Sheldon said. “We need to make sure that we have access to health care in the state of Minnesota, not just in the big cities, but all the way from the top to the bottom. So, how the University navigates what’s going to happen with MN Fairview, all of that is really important.”

Sheldon said it is essential that universities make a college education worth it for students. She thinks the curriculum needs to keep up with industry and teach students successfully.

Meet Dan

Dan Wolter, a statewide at-large seat candidate, is currently a Lakeville City council member. He was initially hired as director of the University News Services, now University Relations, in 2005 and worked there until 2011, working in public relations since.

Wolter served as the lead of communications for former University President Robert Bruininks and the Board. He also served on the Board of Regents candidate advisory council from 2012 to 2023 and personally interviewed every current board member.

Tuition prices are a major concern for Wolter.

“Tuition is of concern to me, and I feel like that’s gotten a little bit out of control,” Wolter said. “Broadly in higher education, tuition is of concern because we’re pricing so many people out of higher education.”

Wolter said public comment is critical to public meetings and wants to spend time listening to the public directly. He said that when an average person reaches out to the board, a staff member typically responds.

“The fundamental part of being a public official is that level of access,” Wolter said. “I’ve talked to parents who are involved in public safety issues, and I think they legitimately were looking for people on the Board of Regents to listen to them.”

Meet John

John Gibbs, a statewide at-large seat candidate, is a fifth-generation University graduate. He said that being a U student is “sorta in his blood.”

Gibbs was a lawyer at Comcast for over 20 years and said working with an international company gave him a sense of the national scale. He said the University should focus on improving as an institution and should not get too comfortable.

Gibbs thinks the University needs to focus on listening and communicating with the community in an engaging way.

“I want to respectfully engage in the debate, don’t shy away from any of it, but do it in a way that embraces all issues,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs said accountability is a key to earning students’ trust, which is essential for the Board.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about the lack of transparency going into a meeting and a decision made, but clearly a whole bunch of things happen leading up,” Gibbs said. “Nobody saw the process that went through to get to that decision.”

Gibbs said he used to hear stories from the University about times of unrest from family members when he was younger. Gibbs thinks having context is incredibly helpful when looking at current political tensions.

He also said academic health is a key issue and wants talks with Fairview to be made more clear.

“It’s (the board) is no place for somebody who’s gonna be intimidated by these challenges,” Gibbs said. “But I’m excited.”

The Board will make its decision before the end of the session, before May 19.

The University of Minnesota Senate voted in favor of establishing a Mutual Academic Defense Compact for the Big Ten Academic Alliance at the April 25 meeting. 

The mutual defense compact, also known as the Rutgers Resolution, protects universities by creating a defense fund. The fund is meant to be used by any institution under “direct political or legal infringement,” according to the resolution. 

Details of the fund, including the amount each participant will contribute, have not been publicized. 

The resolution was passed at Rutgers less than a month ago, and Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State and the University of Nebraska have since endorsed the coalition. 

The University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State and the University of Minnesota were considering joining the resolution, according to V.V. Ganeshananthan, who introduced the resolution. 

Fifty-eight senators from the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Rochester and Duluth campuses publicly co-sponsored the resolution. The University Senate also endorsed a statement, passed by several other universities in the country, in support of the core mission values of higher education.

Jennifer Goodnough, the Faculty Consultative Committee chair, introduced the statement and said the committee received positive feedback. 

No one argued against the mutual defense compact during the Senate meeting. 

“We are at an unprecedented moment in world history, and we miss that reality at our own peril,” Eric Schwartz, a professor at the Humphrey School, who previously spoke publicly about the need to support academic freedom, said. “The institutions of democratic and civil society are under the fiercest attack, and the universities are clearly in the sight of President Trump and his henchmen.” 

University Senator Scott Creer said the goal of confrontations, like those at Columbia and Harvard University, is to attack universities’ independence and undermine democracy.

The University is currently the subject of two federal investigations, one into antisemitism. Greer said the collective action within the Big 10 academic alliance would protect the University from federal concerns. 

Ofelia Ferran, a professor in the Spanish and Portuguese department, said the University is clearly under threat from federal pressures. 

“About a month ago, President Cunningham wrote saying sticks in a bundle are unbreakable, talking about the need to be united in the face of attacks,” Ferran said. “That is what this compact is doing.”

Students also supported the resolution, including Alexander Campbell, an undergraduate student in the College of Science and Engineering, who said it is far better to be united than alone. 

“The point of resolution is defense against the wannabe authoritarian Trump Administration,” Campbell said. “Such defense will deter plans against this school and others and ensure that we have a better chance at standing up for ourselves, with the help of other Big 10 schools.”

The University of Minnesota ranked among the top four universities for startup creation in February. The University has supported companies in the medical, energy and environmental sectors. 

The offices responsible include the Venture Center in the Office of Research and Innovation and the Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship in the Carlson School of Business and Management. 

Venture Center

Angie Conley, the director of the Venture Center, said the University is uniquely successful at supporting small businesses. 

Since 2006, the Venture Center has supported roughly 250 startups, with 110 of them in the last five years, according to Conley. 80% of these startups are still operating. 

“We’re an economic engine not just for the University, but also for the state of Minnesota,” Conley said. “Our companies have raised $3.4 billion in capital through venture capital, grants and public stock sales.”

Rick Huebsch, the associate vice president for research and innovation, said the office offers advising and assistance to companies. 

“We begin helping them register as a company if they want to be a startup,” Huebsch said. “We help them understand their value proposition often, which involves interviewing and thinking through strategy.”

Huebsch said Venture works to talk about issues related to market opportunities and intellectual property.

Conley said that their expertise is helpful to those who are just starting a business. 

“Often it may start as an academic or clinician, and they’re busy, they have a full-time job,” Conley said. “As you build a startup, it takes on a life of its own and becomes more. This is an opportunity to bring in people who have some domain experience and they can help them think through some of their challenges.

Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship

The Holmes Center in the Carlson School connects students with early-stage startups. The center hosts events, like the WE Disrupt Conference, that focus on women entrepreneurs. 

Allison McDonald, the marketing and events manager at Carlson, said the WE Disrupt conference is among their most attended events. This year, roughly 500 people showed up. 

“It’s relatively broad because female founders come from all different backgrounds of different stages and different industries,” McDonald said. “It’s just saying, ‘Let’s come together as entrepreneurs,’ not just like tech entrepreneurs or food entrepreneurs or fashion, it’s all of them under one roof.”

The Holmes Center offers a Startup Job Board, which connects students looking for experience and companies looking for support. Startups are able to sign up, and they post job listings that Carlson students are able to apply for. 

The Center also hosts the annual MN Cup, the largest statewide startup competition in the country. The MN Cup program is open to anyone, even those without a company. 

This year, almost 1,300 people applied online, including 60 students, McDonald said. 

It can be isolating for many entrepreneurs when they start a company, McDonald said, as it is either one person or a really small team.

“Knowing that you’re not alone in that and you have people within this community that have been through it can really make a difference, not just on founders’ mental health, but on the success of their company,” McDonald said.

The Minnesota State Legislature will elect four new University of Minnesota Board of Regents this spring to fill the four open seats — one student at-large, two statewide at-large and one fifth district seat. 

Flora Yang and Dylan Young are running for the open student-at-large seat, which will be filled sometime before June. 

The Regent Candidate Advisory Committee interviewed 22 candidates for all four open Board seats and released their recommendations for 12 candidates in January. They recommended four candidates for the student-at-large seat, but one candidate dropped out of the race and another, Kowsar Mohamed, switched to running for the Fifth District seat.

Yang and Young talked to the Minnesota Daily about why they are running for the student-at-large seat. 

Flora Yang

Yang has been actively involved in student government for the last five years. For the 2022-23 academic year, she was the Undergraduate Student Body President, and she helped raise the student on-campus minimum wage to $15 and implement the Universal Transit Pass during her tenure. 

“Drawing on my breadth of campus leadership roles, I have cultivated deep institutional knowledge and strong relationships with students,” Yang said. 

Yang started at the University 10 years ago, studying human physiology and earned her bachelor’s degree in 2023 before starting medical school. Currently, she is a second-year medical student at the University. 

The Undergraduate Student Government endorsed Yang for the student-at-large seat.

Two years ago, she ran for the statewide at-large seat, but did not win the spot. 

Yang said she wants to focus on three major goals — meeting students’ basic needs, keeping college affordable and strengthening campus safety. 

“By fostering respectful, transparent engagement,” Yang said in a statement emailed to the Daily. “I will ensure that students’ well‐being, affordability, and safety remain at the heart of every decision our University makes.” 

Yang said two-way dialogue between the Regents and the University community is a cornerstone of her plan. She wants the Board to regularly engage with the community. 

Over the last several months, Yang has consulted with student leaders and faculty governance from each of the five campuses and key state legislators to learn about what they want from the Board. 

Yang said she wants more public comment periods during Board meetings to make sure more voices are included in important decisions. 

“Consistent, meaningful dialogue is at the heart of my approach,” Yang said. “By meeting students, faculty and staff where they are, I aim to build genuine partnerships that ensure all voices contribute to shaping our University’s future.”

Yang said the unpredictable future of federal funding for public universities is a big concern for her, and is looking at different ways of funding, including expanding donations and private funding. 

“By combining donor‐aligned funding, disciplined cost management, and proactive enrollment innovation, we can preserve academic excellence without asking students to shoulder ever‐rising tuition bills,” Yang said. 

Dylan Young

Young is a peer mentor to first-generation students and the former student body president for the University Morris campus, where he earned his undergraduate degree in political science and English. 

Growing up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Young attended Morris because of the Native American tuition waiver. He came to the Twin Cities campus to earn his master’s in public policy in higher education at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs last year.

“Those two experiences really ignited my passion for higher education policy, especially public higher education,” Young said. “My family has always understood it as a tool for upward mobility, and my own personal experience as a student affirmed that.”

The University Council of Graduate Students and the Graduate Student Labor Union endorsed Young’s candidacy. He was endorsed by the Undergraduate Student Government as well.

Young said he wants to focus on “equipping all students, regardless of background, with the skills necessary to tackle our community’s greatest challenges.”

Young said one of his major priorities would be working to lower the cost of tuition. 

“I think that college affordability is the number one thing people would like to see from us,” Young said. “Another thing that I want to champion as a member of the Board of Regents is ensuring that we’re doing what we can to avoid raising tuition every year.”

Young said he wants to change the Board’s current approach to public engagement and increase opportunities for public comment during meetings. 

Prior to submitting his application, he went to each of the five campuses to meet with students, staff and faculty. 

“I made sure to go out and talk to students, staff and faculty at each of the five you at campuses to just sit down with them and openly and honestly look them in the eyes and say, ‘What can I do for you as a Regent?’” Young said. 

Young wants the Board to take decisive action to ease students’ anxieties regarding threats to free speech and protest, the DEI initiative cuts and international student safety. 

Young said the University needs to protect the communities it serves. 

“We’re really at a point where, as leaders of colleges, we have three options,” Young said. “We either surrender, we can negotiate or we can fight. I really want to be firm about this, so you could mark me down in the fight column.”

At least 100 people sat in the audience, and another 80 joined over Zoom to watch the public forum held by eight University of Minnesota professors on academic freedom and free speech on Thursday in the Cowles Auditorium of Humphrey Hall. 

Eight professors, in fields ranging from microbiology to history, shared concerns over how speech has increasingly been restricted at the University.

Michael Gallope, a professor in the department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, moderated the event and said we are living in a dynamic and intense historical period with the truth, knowledge and justice all under threat. 

The meeting followed the Board of Regents policy approved March 13-14, restricting institutional speech by requiring all comments on issues of public concern made by the University and faculty groups to be approved by the president.

Eric Schwartz, a professor of public affairs in the Humphrey School and part of the forum, published an OpEd in the Star Tribune condemning the Board’s decision in February before it was approved in a 9-3 decision. He said the University would be muzzling its scholars. 

“It is difficult to overstate the harm of the resolution,” Schwartz said. “Given the University’s long-standing role in shaping public policy and advancing knowledge, one must conclude that the regents who support this measure do not grasp its full consequences.”

The “Palestinian Exception”

In March, the University removed department statements regarding Palestine following the Board of Regents’ decision. Administration informed faculty of the takedown Saturday afternoon during a Zoom meeting.

Eric Van Wyk, the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee chair, said the Palestinian exception to free speech has been explicit at the University. 

The “Palestinian exception” is a term used to describe the silencing of perspectives in support of Palestine in academia. 

Karen Ho, the interim chair for the department of African and African American studies, said protections of free speech have always been unequal. She said the policing of pro-Palestinian students over the last year was itself a violation of academic freedom. 

International Students 

Jane Kirtley, the Silha Center director, wrote an OpEd earlier this month saying the Trump administration has attacked the constitutional right to free speech by targeting the press, lawyers, judges, universities and even the arts.

“We must speak up before we lose them all,” Kirtley said. 

An international student asked the panelists how they should navigate these times. Schwartz and Kirtley gave an unclear answer, saying none of them know what to do, and this is an incredibly confusing time.

“If it’s any comfort, you are not alone,” Kirtley said. 

Federal Aid

Rachel Widome, a professor in epidemiology, said she had never been censored until very recently as a researcher. She said that National Institutes of Health grants across the board are at risk of being removed, and that students are afraid their research will be censored. 

“This is impacting our science, and affecting what we can say,” Widome said. 

Christina Ewig, the center director of the Humphrey School, asked where the line is drawn in regards to self-censorship. 

Widome said things in the School of Public Health are changing on a daily basis and students are concerned about the future. 

No one from the University administration attended the event. 

Ho said that since protests have been framed as terrorism, the relationship between faculty and administration has been harmed. 

“They need to be accountable to faculty and students, not just the Board of Regents,” Van Wyk said.

University of Minnesota Crookston launched a new sport media and communication major in March that will be offered this fall semester.

The degree will focus on the writing and production of sports media with four new courses — intro to sports communication, multimedia productions, sports broadcast productions and sports media production. 

The Communications and Sport and Recreation Management Departments created the program partnership with the Office of Distributed Learning to offer the degree online and in person. 

Fritz Vandover, a program analyst in the Office of Distributed Learning, said the office wanted to offer it online to help make it accessible to more students. 

“Our office helps coordinate these resources around the system to make sure there’s an opportunity, people prospective students know about it,” Vandover said. “Then we get it help to get it out the door and running.” 

Vandover said the office supports different departments, providing them with marketing resources and market analysis. 

“I did research on how many students they could potentially recruit and there’s a lot of demand for bachelor’s in sport media,” Vandover said. “It’s not a very saturated marketplace, there’s an opportunity for Crookson to be in the first one of the first waves of institutions offering this.”

Megan Bell, a communications professor, said this program allows students to explore new career paths not originally offered at Crookston. 

“I’ve noticed in meetings with prospective students that there’s been a real interest in doing something in the world of sports,” Bell said. “Whether it was something with multimedia or more, the broadcast or writing side of things, and that was an area that we haven’t focused on in our existing communication program.”

Bell said this program differs from other communication programs in its emphasis on technology. 

“We’re really looking for something with mobile technology that will be accessible to both in-person and online students,” Bell said. “In multimedia production, students will look at tools, storytelling strategies and editing skills to help them with potential on-air work.” 

Bell said skills relating to technology are essential for students interested in sports communication because of the demands of the industry. 

Students will do a lot of writing, learn AP Style, how to use social media and practice using technology and specific software programs necessary for broadcast production and multimedia work. 

Students majoring in sport media and communication will be required to complete an internship as a part of the program, which allows them to gain real-world experience, Bell said. She added that all students will take a three-credit course and will report to an advisor about their experience in their internship.

“We anticipate our students doing jobs like sports information director, a sport media content creator, a digital communication specialist, might be a title, but in the sports realm,” Bell said. “There are varied pathways, and lots of evidence that there’s gonna be a lot of demand by employers.”

Marketing students at the University of Minnesota-Crookston worked with the local government on major projects in their senior year. 

Over the last two years, students have created a new marketing plan for the city, helped redesign the city’s website and recommended a new marketing job. 

Al Fattal Anas, an assistant professor at Crookston, began working with Community Development Director Karie Kirschbaum after she approached the marketing department in 2022, looking for help in his new position.

“I have always been a big fan of this community engagement concept,” Anas said. “While in Europe, I was involved in several projects similar to this. Where businesses come to the university and look for guidance.” 

Marketing students came up with a marketing plan in 2022 for the city of Crookston. Since then, each semester, students in Anas’ marketing research class have worked with different parts of the local government to conduct marketing research and provide guidance for the city. 

Currently, students are working alongside natural resources students on the trail system in Crookston to improve usage, Anas said.

Anas said the city is home to lots of beautiful trails, and students are hoping to improve their use. 

“We are looking at the condition of the parks and how we can make it better,” Anas said. 

Eric Castle teaches the natural resources course, working alongside Anas’ students to develop an interdisciplinary project to help maintain parks in the community. He said students are learning in the classroom and going into the field to photograph and inventory items as they determine how to improve the trails. 

Castle said they are combining with marketing students to see their perspective. 

“I think some of the strengths that some of the marketing students have is they are trained in how to tell stories, they have that skill set,” Castle said. “Natural resources students don’t necessarily have some of those skills, but combining the two classes allows the final product to leverage the knowledge of both the marketing students and the natural resources students.”

Castle said students tend to appreciate these applied projects, where students can interact and work with local communities and collaborate with real people. 

Anas said he teaches this course differently than his other courses, as the focus is on the application of concepts. He said the students, mostly fourth years, are deeply engaged in the course. 

Each project requires students to find a driving question, interview people in the community, create a survey and come up with recommendations. The undergraduate students’ work has led to several changes in the city of Crookston, Anas said. 

“They recommended that the city should create a marketing coordinator,” Anas said. “Now we have a marketing coordinator and we work very closely with this person.”

Anas said that students have received job offers after they have completed projects in this class. He does not know what project students will be working on in the fall, but he plans on continuing to work in the community. 

“I’ve always loved experiential learning, even when I was a student,” Anas said. “We don’t remember the lectures once we graduate, but we remember the experiences. They present work in front of strangers, and break out of the college environment.”

The University of Minnesota Faculty Senate voted against updating the core curriculum requirements for undergraduate students at the Twin Cities campus at a meeting April 3. The official vote was 42 in favor and 62 opposed.  

The curriculum would have created a new multidisciplinary synthesis required for all students and changed the general education requirements for students beginning in the fall of 2027.

The plan was first introduced at the December senate meeting before being open for debate at the February and March senate meetings. Faculty and students have spoken for and against the resolution. 

JB Shank, chair of the CLA Assembly, presented mixed feedback from the college. He said he heard a lot of undergraduate students who praised the proposed curriculum for being innovative, but faculty in the English department opposed the curriculum for not requiring a literature foundations course. 

“There’s a widespread, if not universal, opposition among the tenure line faculty across the college,” Shank said. “I get nothing but negative responses to this.”

The plan would introduce focus areas in equity, environment, civil life and well-being. Each student would pick and take three courses in a focus area before taking a multidisciplinary synthesis in their senior year. 

Shank said the biggest concern was the vague language in the proposal and the move away from traditional disciplinary and teaching methods for liberal arts requirements. 

Others questioned how the curriculum would be staffed and were concerned the focus areas would feel like an additional minor for students.

Will Durfee, co-chair of the task force, said the disagreement does not surprise him. 

“There is never gonna be faculty unity on matters of curriculum,” Durfee said. 

Dufree said one hope of the curriculum was to end the mentality of box-checking when picking core classes. 

Kathryn Pearson, the co-chair of the taskforce, said prior to voting, this proposal was supported throughout the University from conversations with faculty and students. 

“The faculty own the curriculum, and this change would make a positive impact on the University of Minnesota in this time of uncertainty for universities across the country,” Pearson said.

The current liberal education requirements will still be required for all students moving forward, but every liberal education course will go through a scheduled recertification process in fall 2025, where each course will be evaluated to ensure it still fits as an individual liberal education course.

Elmer H. Andersen Library is hosting “Campus Kiosk, the Voices of Student Groups,” until May 30, which commemorates student activism and protests at the University of Minnesota. 

The collection includes handouts, letters and other materials associated with student activism from the 1930s to 2001 and photographs and materials collected by faculty organizations. Most of the items in the collection have never been displayed publicly. 

Archivist Katelyn Morken began working with these materials in 2022 found in the archives before the libraries pitched the idea of a display last year. 

“All of the materials used in the exhibits are representative of political and social action by student groups,” Morken said. “Each of them were utilized in a way to be shared, to promote what was happening at the time.”

The display was previously shown from September through December last year on the second floor of Coffman Union near the student government offices but moved to Andersen Library on March 10.

Darren Terpstra, the design and project specialist at the University Archives, created the physical exhibits for the display in Coffman. 

Gallery
3 Photos

Image by Pooja Singh

The background of the display is a medley of different posters posted on kiosks. The Young Socialist Alliance, the American League Against War and Fascism and the U of M Women’s Liberation Group are all on display. 

Morken and Terpstra began working on the project in May 2024 and decided to organize the first display by idea instead of chronologically. The display focuses on five causes: to promote peace, advocate divestment for human rights, support civil rights, support women’s rights and child care and to exercise educational rights. 

“Dividing this up into chunks and themes allows people to drop by and see things in a snapshot,” Terpstra said. 

The promotion of peace has the longest time span, encompassing movements opposing World War II and the Vietnam War.

“It’s interesting to see the topics, how they’ve changed over the years and how they haven’t,” Terpstra said. 

Nearly all of the materials are 8-foot by 11-inch pieces of paper that would have been passed out around campus.

“We were thinking about the student experience, and this is a major part of it,” Morken said. “I think this is one of the most important types of preservation that we can do, that highlights student creations and student work.”

Part of the collection includes a digital archive with materials that can be viewed on any device. Morken and Terpstra said it would allow people who may not have time to view the full display in person a chance to do it digitally.

Collection for the archive is occurring on a rolling basis and they are continuing to add materials. Morken said they hope to work with student groups who may have been involved in social activism previously. 

“It’s important for people who are not necessarily students of history to see this and understand that student voices and protesting has been going on since day one, this has been happening forever,” Terpstra said.

A University of Minnesota Senate Committee recommends changes to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices at the University, including third-party auditors, in a letter to President Rebecca Cunningham. 

The Equity, Access and Diversity Committee said that the University Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX, or EOT, should not be responsible for assessing cases of discrimination, misconduct, nepotism and retaliation because of conflict of interest concerns. 

The Feb. 24 letter said that, of the 700 cases reported to the EOT in 2022 and 2023, only 45 investigations occurred. Ten policy violations were found, 1.43% of the total amount. 

EOT investigates discrimination cases that are filed directly against the University. The Committee said that because EOT staff are employed by the University, there is a conflict of interest.

“There is a strong financial incentive to do so by conducting investigations and rendering decisions that favor the respondent. EOT staff are not arms-length, neutral, independent, uninterested investigators and adjudicators,” the Equity, Access and Diversity Committee said. 

Committee member Stuart Yeh said the Committee is entrusted with the responsibility for creating recommendations regarding DEI. 

The Committee highly recommends that the University begin to work with an independent investigator to make sure cases are impartial.

The letter recommends that the University “constitute a pool of investigators and adjudicators from a list of independent investigators and adjudicators established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” 

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is responsible for enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws and outlines the regulation of anti-discrimination policy.  

Yeh said these recommendations should create a fairer system. 

“The letter suggested that a process that is seen as fair, neutral, and balanced by all parties may be expected to reduce conflict, promote efficient resolution, and ultimately reduce the total cost incurred by the University of Minnesota to resolve time-consuming cases of discrimination and misconduct,” Yeh said. 

The University’s Office for Equity and Diversity said in a statement the office is grateful for the feedback. 

“The University of Minnesota remains deeply committed to advancing equity and continuous improvement, regularly reviewing its policies and practices to ensure compliance with federal and state laws and alignment with our institutional values,” the Office for Equity and Diversity said. 

The office said that EOT continuously evaluates its process to ensure they are impartial and responsive to the needs of the University community. 

“We appreciate the Equity, Access, and Diversity Committee’s engagement with these critical issues and share their dedication to fostering an equitable and inclusive environment at the University of Minnesota,“ the Office for Equity and Diversity said in the statement.

Correction: A previous version of this article listed the name of the Office for Equity and Diversity’s representative for the statement when the statement is from the Office for Equity and Diversity.